Nanotechnology General News

The latest news from academia, regulators
research labs and other things of interest

Posted: May 4, 2007

Intel's Next Generation 45-Nanometer Processor And Beyond

(Nanowerk News) In the second half of 2007, Intel will begin production of the next generation Intel® Core™2 processor family codenamed "Penryn" which is based on a 45-nanometer Hi-k metal gate process technology.

With more than 400 million transistors for dual-core processors and more than 800 million for quad-core, the 45nm Penryn family introduces new microarchitecture features for greater performance at a given frequency, plus expanded power management capabilities for new levels of energy efficiency. The 45nm Hi-k next generation Intel Core 2 and Intel Xeon processors have more transistors but are about 25 percent smaller in silicon area than Intel's current 65nm products and operate at the same or lower power than the current Intel Core 2 processors.

The Penryn will be followed in 2008 by the "Nehalem" processor series which will be based on the 45nm technology but have improved performance/energy efficieny.

Beyond that, Intel is working on a 32nm processor technology. Code-named "Westmere", this 32nm version of the Nethalem is expected to hit the market in 2009.